Hair of the Dog by Gordon Carroll (reading strategies book TXT) 📗

smiled and nodded. “You read me good,” I said. “You should be a detective.”

“Right,” he said. “Spill, what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Not exactly anyway. It’s just that look he gave me as I was running off with Keisha.”

“Look?”

I nodded again. “Yeah, like… like I really was stealing his little girl. Like he was trying to tell my soul that he was going to come after me… come after me and get her back.” I lifted my eyes to his. “The kind of look a father would give in that case.”

“He’s not her father,” said Jared.

I sat there thinking, remembering that look and the way he exploded when I told him I was there for her when we first fought.

“Right,” I said, “yeah… yeah, I know.”

“This guy nearly killed you,” said Jared, “and he’s still out there. You need to watch yourself until we get him.”

“He might try to come here for her,” I said.

Jared grinned, stretching his many chins. “Here? We’ve got a zillion cops here, Gil.”

I shrugged. “You didn’t see that look. He really might try it.”

“You thinking this guy is like the Terminator?”

I touched the split skin on my cheek, wincing. “He’s tough and he keeps on coming right at you. It wouldn’t be a good idea to underestimate his determination.”

Jared picked up the phone and told the front desk what to watch out for.

“Satisfied?”

“Better safe than sorry and all that,” I said.

Jared pointed a thick finger at me. “Be sure you take your own advice and keep an eye out.”

“I will,” I said. “Can I see Keisha?”

“Sure,” he said. As he stood, the phone rang. I saw Jared’s eyes get big, and for just a second, I thought it was Jerome Larkin crashing through the front of the station, like Arnold in his sunglasses saying; I’ll be back. But then he sat down.

“Hello, Senator Marsh, yes we have her,” Jared said into the phone as he sat back down. “He’s sitting right across from me now. Yes, he is a good man. Of course, we’ll take good care of her. Yes, yes of course. Thank you, sir.” He hung up. “The senator likes you.” His smile grew wider. “He thinks you are The Batman, Superman and the Flash all wrapped up in one.”

“Not bad coming from God,” I said.

“God?”

I shook my head. “You’d have to see him.” I stood up. “How long till you get her processed and ready for transport back to Chicago?”

Jared stood up, tucking his cell back into his jacket pocket. “At least a week, I’d say. Maybe longer. Depends on how efficient Chicago is.” He grinned. “Murder capital of the world, I don’t suppose their social services section is sitting around on its collective butt waiting for something to do.”

We went to the second floor where Keisha was sitting in a chair and eating a cup of pudding. She saw me through the window and her little eyebrows drew down in a scowl.

“Where’s my daddy?” she yelled.

The woman police officer with her turned and gave me a suspicious look. I noticed her hand move to rest against her sidearm. Jared held up a reassuring hand and she relaxed…a little.

“Where’s my daddy?” Keisha yelled again, and this time she stood up and dropped the pudding, as if it meant nothing at all. She walked to the window and stared at me. I saw tears well up in her big eyes and she started shaking her fists at me.

“I want my daddy! He needs me! You get my daddy!”

The female officer picked her up and held her close, patting her back as she walked her to the table.

“Maybe we should go,” said Jared.

I nodded, feeling the wetness in my eyes.

“Poor little girl,” I said, trying not to let my voice crack, but failing.

“She doesn’t know any better, buddy. It’s the Stockholm, that’s all. You saved her.”

“Sure,” I said, trying to make myself believe it and feeling dirty.

We made it out front of the police station, traffic rushing past at its usual pace a few dozen yards to the south. The day shone bright and warm in exact contrast to what I felt inside. I saw cops and people in suits walking up and down the stairs of the administration building, mindless of the two of us or our feelings. Or the fact that a kidnapped little girl sat crying upstairs, feeling like she had just been kidnapped for the second time in her short life. People ask why bad things happen to good people and the answer is always the same, sin. From Adam on down.

“Look,” said Jared, “don’t be stupid about this. You saved her from the monster that kidnapped her. The guy murdered her mother, killed who knows how many others, tried to kill you. Probably did very bad things to her that we don’t even want to know about. Just because she’s five and doesn’t know any better is no reason for you to get down on yourself. Now keep your mind in the game, Gil, because like I said before, this guy, this BAD guy, is still out there. You see him, you shoot first and talk later, understand? You don’t think about how that girl’s crying and calling him her daddy. You don’t hesitate. You shoot and put him down till he ain’t a threat no more. You got me, buddy?”

And right there I saw the old Jared Darling burning through, clear of the pounds and the desk and the political correctness that a command position had imposed on him. The Jared Darling that, with a dynamite dog, had hunted down three armed robbers in a swamp and shot it out with them, taking a round in the thigh and wounding two of them before they surrendered.

I nodded and shook his hand. “I got you, Jared, and thanks.”

I still felt dirty as I turned for my car, but I also knew in my mind that he was as right as right could be. It’s just that